Get double miles elite on American Airlines flights through December 15!

by Grant Martin on

They’ve done it again! Earlier this year, American Airlines launched a pomotion to double elite miles on all AA operated flights. These special miles are the gateway to elite status, where tiers of rewards such as upgrades, bonuses and free drinks await savvy travelers.

In the several months that followed the initial promotion, travelers booked all sorts of tickets to maximize miles and earn status, from “Mileage Runs” from Boston to Los Angeles to weekend trips to Rio De Janiero. Everyone reveled in the victory, as double elite qualifying miles promotions only come around once in a blue moon and almost certainly never more than once in a year…that is, until today.

Just this morning, AA just announced that they’re running the same promotion again through year’s end, so for those of us that didn’t quite get enough miles to make Platinum or Executive Platinum, there’s still time.

You can sign up for the promo at their website using code ELTRW.

Keep an ear tuned to your favorite airline for similar promotions — earlier this year all of the other legacy carriers followed suit after AA launched their promotion.

Status seekers pulling back

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s not just the travel companies’ bank accounts getting hit in this market – loyalty programs are getting spanked, too. The management consultants, investment bankers and attorneys – now fewer in number than a year ago – who accumulate elite status quickly aren’t spending as much time on the road. With considerably less travel time being logged, the folks who used to have platinum status on multiple airlines and in multiple hotels aren’t hitting the same levels they have for the past several years.

A study by Colloquy, which conducts marketing research for loyalty programs, showed that loyalty program membership dropped 28 percent in the travel industry. In 2007, the average traveler belonged to 2.8 of these programs. Now, it’s down to merely two. Lower- and middle-income men are being cited as the source of the decline, as they’ve been hit harder by layoffs.

Additionally, active participation in loyalty programs is down almost a third. This year, the average traveler is participating actively in 1.5 programs – a year ago, it was 2.2. Among the wealthy, this type of engagement fell 13 percent – from 2.3 programs down to two.

According to Colloquy, travelers are focusing on fewer programs and looking to get as much as they can out of them, rather than spread around their travel with the knowledge that they’ll have enough to reach and maintain high statuses with several travel companies.

Score FREE US Airways silver status for 90 days!

by Grant Martin on

Curious about that fancy “elite status” that all of those frequent flyers are always bragging about? It’s true that joining the upper ranks of a frequent flyer program comes with perks — free upgrades, standby list priority and better seats to name a few, but it takes a lot of work, money and flown miles to reach many of these tiers, three things that many people don’t have in this economy.

So US Airways is giving you a shortcut. From now until month’s end, you can sign up at this special promotion page for FREE silver status for ninety days. All that you have to do is have a US Airways Dividend Miles Number, which you can get here, and you’ll be on your way.

Additional benefits to silver status on US Airways include bonus miles and waived standby fees, the full details of which can be found here.

The one caveat to silver membership appears to be that the benefits are only good for tickets booked after you sign up for the promotion. But either way, it can’t hurt to jump onboard. Have a drink for us in first class!

[thanks to bozo007 @ fatwallet]

Unexpected trip plan change? Make lemonade out of a lemon

by Jamie Rhein on

For circumstances beyond my control, my mom isn’t going on our cruise to Greece in August. Originally the trip was my idea to help fulfill a longtime dream of hers–take a Greek cruise. When I found out that MSC Cruise lines was offering quite the deal I was on it. We booked the cruise in March.

All details fit into place including hotel rooms in Venice, the cruise’s port and frequent flier flights for my son and me. Because he is seven, the cruise is free for him.

Now that my mom is unable to go, and it’s less than two weeks from the trip, rather than go with my son on my own–or lose 100% of the money we’ve paid for the cruise, we’re switching my teenage daughter for my mom. Here’s what the change has involved so far.

  • $100 to make the ticket switch with the cruise line.
  • 75,000 in frequent flier miles. Amazingly enough, I could get her on the same flight to Venice with my son and me for 30,000. She’s on a different flight back for 45,000.
  • $165 for taxes and fees for her plane ticket.

Now that she’s going on the cruise instead of my mom, there are her expenses of drinks and shore excursions which I expect won’t be particularly inexpensive. Plus, I’ll have to feed her in Venice.

All in all, the lemonade isn’t too sour. What’s $1,000 more dollars? That’s what I’m anticipating the total cost for my daughter’s trip will be. It’s better to over budget than under budget when it comes to making lemonade.

When I told her the ship has a no shorts or jeans dress code after 6 p.m., her response was. “Geez, it’s like middle school.” Teenagers.

United reduces cost of mileage tickets

by Grant Martin on

Amidst all of the increased fees and reduced services plaguing the airlines these days, it’s refreshing to actually see a change that goes the customers’ way. Albeit temporarily, United just reduced the number of frequent flyer miles necessary to book a free ticket on the airline. Reductions range from 20% to almost 30%. Domestic travel, for example, has been reduced from 25K miles to 20K miles, while a ticket from the US to Australia ihas been reduced from 80K to 64K. Europe, on the other hand, which normally costs 50-60K on other airlines costs 44K on United. Not a bad deal.

You can see the price reductions and book directly at United.com for travel between August 18th and November 18th.

Why the sudden generosity? Well, demand is way down this year, and with the end of tourist season bringing further reductions, airlines are going to have a ton of extra space on their airplanes. It’s better to have a seat booked with a fee-paying passenger than an empty seat altogether, right?